TIME

[Hook: Soul chipmunk sample with echoing vocals - steady, melodic] Time slips through my fingers like grains in the glass While memories fade into photographs (Into photographs....... photographs...) [Verse 1: Building speed gradually] Seven years old, watching shadows dance on my wall Time was this giant / that I couldn't make fall > Now I'm watching / my father's hair fade in the light > Time's a thief that moves silent / stealing colors in the night [Quick double-time flow] Remember when summers stretched out like highways Now years fold like origami, disappearing sideways Used to count days till Christmas, now I count grey hairs Life's like wet paint dripping down time's twisted stairs [Slowing, more deliberate] Found... my old toys in the attic... covered in dust Metal cars all rusted... childhood dreams gone to rust [Speeding up] But what hit harder than seeing those forgotten things was catching my reflection in a mirror with broken wings > [Punchy, staccato delivery] Now I under/stand why mama /kept those photo /books Each page a /butterfly trapped in /amber, precious /looks [Flowing, liquid delivery] Time was an ocean back then, now it's just a stream Running faster than my legs can carry these dreams [Hook] [Verse 2: Conversational pace with bursts] Looking through my phone at faces growing old Friends I used to know, stories left untold > [Quick burst] Their kids growing like weeds in fast-forward scenes while my memories of them stay frozen in their teens [Rhythmic, measured pace] Started counting backwards / from milestones ahead / Now I'm counting forward / from the moments that fled / Strange how time bends / around the pain in our mind / Some scars take decades / while some heal right behind [Slow, heavy emphasis] Got... this... watch... from my grandfather's trembling hands He said "Time's not money, son... time's grains of sand" [Building speed] Now I'm older than he was when he told me that truth Watching my own hands shake > holding fragments of youth > [Flowing] Calendar pages falling like autumn leaves... Each season teaching lessons that nobody believes... Till you're standing in December looking back at May... Wondering how whole lifetimes fit into one day... [Hook] [outro]